e-News 6/5/15

• Senator Reid: Legislation Supporting Troops “A Waste of Time.”
• Possible “Full scale Invasion” of Ukraine, White House Watches
• “Obama’s Legacy in the Middle Eastern Desert”
• “China’s Military Is Not Worried About Obama
• Hardworking Families Face Double Digit Premium Hikes
• Listening Tour Continues
• Salute: Lincoln Park Emergency Medical Squad

Senator Reid: Legislation Supporting Troops “A Waste of Time.”

The “Outrageous Statement of the Week” probably belongs to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (NV) as he declared this week that considering the bipartisan defense authorization bill in Congress is “waste of time.”

I find this comment troubling.  It is a fact that our Constitution says that the first duty of Congress is to provide for the “common defence.”

To that end, my Appropriations Committee on Defense worked this week to pass our FY 2016 Defense Appropriations bill in the full Appropriations Committee. 

The panel passed my legislation which would give the President the funding he requested this year, cuts Pentagon waste, pays our troops and cares for their families. Yet to Senator Reid, doing all these things is a “waste of time.” Which brings up other questions:

• Does Sen Reid believe it’s a “waste of time” to improve the readiness of our troops?
• Does Sen. Reid believe it’s a “waste of time” to provide our Combatant Commanders with more “actionable intelligence?”
• Does Sen. Reid believe it’s a “waste of time” to reinforce the mission to defeat ISIL?
• Does Sen. Reid believe it’s “a waste of time” to stand up to Putin and provide lethal defensive assistance to our ally Ukraine?
• Do Sen. Reid believe it’s “a waste of time” to strengthen our cyber defenses?
• Does Sen Reid believe it’s “a waste of time” to keep terrorist detainees out of the United States?

Protecting America, our allies and our interests and meeting our troops' needs is never a waste of time. Suggesting otherwise is irresponsible. 

“Full scale Invasion” of Ukraine, White House Watches

Ukraine’s President, Petro Poroshenko, is warning of a possible "full-scale invasion" from Russia, amid a surge of violence in eastern Ukraine.  Poroshenko, with whom I visited earlier this year, says 9,000 Russian troops were deployed in Ukraine. The outbreak of violence this week was among the worst in eastern Ukraine since a ceasefire was signed in Minsk in February.

My 2016 Defense Appropriations bill, which will be considered by the House next week, contains a dedicated $200 million in additional assistance to the government of Ukraine, including a provision which would allow the transfer of “defense lethal systems” to Ukraine.

In the meantime, repeated calls to declare Ukraine a “major non-NATO ally,” including three letters from me, have been ignored by the Obama Administration.

Read more here.

“Obama’s Legacy in the Middle Eastern Desert”

Wes Pruden wrote a column this week that is “on target” for the Washington Times.  “It’s clear now to nearly everyone that this president and his administration have cornered the market on ineptitude."  Read the entire column here.

“China’s Military Is Not Worried About Obama

Josh Rogin writes for Bloomberg View “Chinese military officials attending a major security conference in Singapore over the weekend made clear that they have no intention of halting their aggressive activities in the South China Sea, and they are confident that U.S. President Barack Obama is not going to be able to stop them.”

Read the article here.

Hardworking Families Face Double Digit Premium Hikes

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, “nearly half of all people with individual” Obamacare plans “said it’s ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ difficult for them to afford their monthly premiums’” – and it’s about to get even worse.  The president’s health care law is already failing to ‘bend the cost curve’ as he promised it would, and is set to deliver an even bigger blow to working families next year.  Read more here.  

• “More Health-Care Insurers Seek Big Premium Increases” “Major carriers from around the country are proposing big increases in the premium rates paid by consumers who buy insurance policies on their own. … Around the country, some of the main market leaders are looking for double digit increases.” (Wall Street Journal)
• “Insurers Eye ObamaCare Hikes” “Health insurers across the country are eyeing slightly steeper cost increases in 2016, a year that will be an important test for how well Obamacare is working. … The proposed 2016 rates will offer the most accurate portrait so far about the health of the marketplaces. … Tennessee’s biggest insurer has proposed an increase of 36 percent for some plans, while one of New Mexico’s biggest carriers is looking at a 50 percent increase. The most popular carrier in Maryland has called for a 30 percent hike.” (The Hill)
• “Many Health Insurers Go Big with Initial 2016 Rate Requests” “Dozens of health insurers say higher-than-expected care costs and other expenses blindsided them this year, and they’re going to have to hike premiums for individual policies well-beyond 10 percent for 2016. ‘It’s hard to generalize, but that said, I think all signs are pointing to bigger premium increases than in 2015,’ said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, a clearinghouse for information on the health care system.” (Associated Press)
• “Obamacare’s Double-Digit Rate Hikes for 2016 Disclosed”“[R]ates will jump in 2016 by double-digit percentages for individual policy purchasers on public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act in practically every state, according to the first glimpse of proposed costs for next year released by the Obama administration.” (Forbes)

Listening Tour Continues

I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with members of the Morris Plains Rotary this morning where we discussed national security, the advance of ISIL forces and international trade.

Salute: Congratulations to the Lincoln Park Emergency Medical Squad(LPEMS) as it celebrates its 50^th Anniversary.  I was honored to attend their Open House at LPEMS headquarters on Chapel Hill Road last weekend where I thanked the members for their long and valuable service to Lincoln Park.  I would also note that LPEMS also provided important assistance to New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 as well as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, assisting in many evacuations throughout the state, including nursing home evacuations, and also a hospital evacuation in Hoboken in preparation of Superstorm Sandy.  Read more here.